Edison guard Brae Ivey, right, and Foothill's Jacob Sanchez, slide across the floor as they scramble for a loose ball in the CIF-SS Division 1A boys basketball championship at the Honda Center Saturday.

Loss hurts, but Edison proud of its season

ANAHEIM - The character of a team is not often defined in victory, but in the grips of defeat.

As was the case with the Edison boys basketball team, whose season came to a close at the hands of Foothill, 65-58, in the CIF-Southern Section Divison 1A championship game Saturday night at Honda Center.

“Everybody wants to win the last game, but not everybody is going to do that,” Chargers coach Rich Boyce said. “I’m just proud of the way they battled. They never gave up.”

In a game that saw eight lead changes, the Chargers never allowed a Knights run to take them out of the game. It was only after Garrett White and Jeremiah Lewis both fouled out late in the fourth quarter, that fouls and free throw shooting allowed Foothill to pull away.

“I think Garrett White and Jeremiah did a great job of fighting," Boyce said. “All we were doing was battling and helping weak side. But in the end, they’re still bigger than us.

"We were down to all guards, they just kept battling the whole time against the big kids. That’s all you really want is to give your best effort.”

It was the same kind of resolve and effort that got Edison to its first CIF-SS final since 1994.

After dropping their final game of the regular season and giving up sole ownership of the Sunset League title to rival Los Alamitos, Edison could have allowed that hardship to derail its postseason goals. Instead, it fueled them.

The Chargers won their first four postseason games by an average of 19.25 points, including a stunning upset of top-seeded Loyola of Los Angeles.

After that game, which earned them their spot in Saturday’s final, Boyce spoke of how his tough, hard-nosed team had facedadversity all year long.

Seniors Brae Ivey and A.J. Garrity, along with six other seniors, guided the Chragers through that adversity to a 25-7 overall record.

“Great group, they gave me so much over the years,” Boyce said of his seniors. “I can’t be anything but proud of what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve done.”